Wine lives in sad times; it is put to test and competition just because it pleases, it is good. I was fine till the species got obsessed with how their dogs walk and colts canter but why wine, why can?t some things be left. Wine on the other hand continues its altruistic existence, always providing and never expecting. Yet another example of wine or more correctly, the wine community giving to wines would be the Masi Foundation Prizes which are awarded every year to people who have influenced winemaking in a positive and permanent manner.

Masi is a wine house in Verona and would ideally have no need to involve in such activities but a bit about the company will help you understand why. Masi, right from the start has been deeply involved in preservation and resurrection of natural resources ? grapes, land, soil types, wine styles ? they have laboured since ever to preserve and future-protect things that we may have otherwise lost over time. Sure they have commercial interests when they make wine (good wine at that) but not at the cost of leaving nature bruised or the future blemished.

Now it becomes easier to see the connection. The idea of these awards is also very simple: to unite people who may come from varied walks of life or represent different fields but are nonetheless seamlessly united and similar in their vision of the future, their dedication to a cause and their endeavour to make the world a better place for all.

Then there is the Premio Grosso d?Oro Veneziano which is awarded to a person who has been instrumental in spreading a cultural message around the globe, to infect others with their positive message of unity, progress and peace. And this is the part where Indians should sit up and listen as this year, the prize is going to a fellow Indian, Sanjit Bunker Roy. Without getting into much detail, Roy has been working with the poverty-stricken villages of Rajasthan where his projects have successfully implemented some economic models to help eradicate poverty and improve living conditions for all. The model is adaptable to places elsewhere facing similar conditions which make the project truly effective and universal. I got to know of this through the wine and I sincerely hope that the event will be duly covered and Roy will get his due recognition, not to mention his project which, too, through all this publicity should be furthered for the right causes, towards achieving the right endings.

The event this year is slated for end September in the Valpolicella region of Verona, and it coincides with the selection of the grapes that will be used to make Amarone as they are laid out on bamboo mats (traditionally straw mats) to dry through winters. The grapes lose moisture and concentrate in flavour so that, come January, when they go forth to be a part of wine, the long wait translates into richness. Somewhere if I were to draw a parallel, Mr. Roy?s work too has been of silent waiting ? he has toiled whilst we have known little of it. The fruit it bore was the happiness he could bring alive in the people whose lives he touched; the award is merely to help bring this to the notice of others. So, when wine is happens to be the one to bring this to our notice, it just further gladdens a person like me; heightening the joy I will derive next time

I sip a good wine. There may be few people like me who see winemaking as noble but surely all of us can come together to salute a man who fights poverty and emancipates fellow humans from such horrors.

I toast you Roy, may your cup always brim over…

?The writer is a sommelier